Bachmann claimed that Merck “made millions” off of Perry’s Gardasil executive order. But that order was never implemented, so Merck’s millions were never made. So at a minimum, Bachmann doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

Bachmann insinuated that Merck’s donations to Perry bought Perry’s executive order. You know, the one that made Merck millions without ever being implemented. But Merck has kept on donating to Perry’s campaigns even after 2007, right up to 2010, for a total of about $30,000 (which is not that much, by corporate or Big Labor standards), and additional larger donations to the RGA. Are they still trying to buy Perry? Maybe their plan is to keep stringing him along until he’s president, and then he can spring Gardasil on the whole country…bwahahahaha! And he’d get away with it too, if not for a spunky congresswoman and a few meddling bloggers…

Bachmann also claims that a mom came up to her and said Gardasil caused her daughter’s mental problems. Anecdotes are not science, though, and there is no scientific evidence that Gardasil has any serious side effects at all. It’s still being monitored, as many relatively new drugs are to one extent or another, but it has been on the market for a while now. So in all likelihood, Bachmann took a sad but untrue story at face value and used it to attack Perry, rather than checking the facts first. Because the story was politically useful to her and others it was, as they say, too good to check.

More: Based on a couple of reactions to this post, here’s all I have to say:

Bryan Preston has been a leading conservative blogger and opinionator since founding his first blog in 2001. Bryan is a military veteran, worked for NASA, was a founding blogger and producer at Hot Air, was producer of the Laura Ingraham Show and, most recently before joining PJM, was Communications Director of the Republican Party of Texas.

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20 Comments, 9 Threads

1.
Marc Malone

I like Bachmann, but she is constantly getting the underlying facts wrong. She is right in general, but wrong in specifics. She just does not do her homework.

Similarly, I do not support Cain, because he gets the foreign affairs stuff wrong, because he doesn’t know. He hasn’t kept up over the years. He also has some big-government tendencies.

I expect the candidates to do their homework. For all Romney’s faults, he does his homework, and he is running a pretty good campaign. I won’t vote for him, though. Better Bachmann or Cain than him.

All the candidates are pretty flawed, so I guess Bachmann is no worse than the rest.

Dang. I really hope Palin gets into the race, but at this point, I very much doubt she will. She really is the best of the lot, although she has her downside, too.

By and large, I believe politicians are functional sociopaths. Consider all of the gaffes with regards to history, a sizable number of politicians on both sides have committed them lately. They dont know history because, to a sociopath, history is just not interesting. It is about other people, and, it is past so no longer relevant.
I have always marveled at how they can commit awful gaffes like the one profiled here, then jump back in the spotlight pretending it never happened. You ( normal readers) or I would be ashamed to show our face again.

I am still holding my breath, but it is worth pointing out that Allen West seems to be very knowledgeable about history. He faced the music and publicly apologized when he was mistaken about the pigford affair. That says alot about his character. Still, I am cynical enough not to be surprised if he eventually does something awful. ( Calling wasserman-shultz ‘vile’ doesnt count. She is. )

Of course there are exceptions, but would a construction worker, a real man’s man, seek a job at a daycare? Would a pacifist join the army? Would an agoraphobic take a job as a traveling salesperson?
Who seeks power?

General: your frenetic posting throughout these comments matches the stridency of Ms Malkin, who certainly violates Mark Twain’s dictum of bad writers using too many adjectives.

Merck is a large pharmaceutical company: good, that enables it to come up with such wonder-drugs as Gardasil. It has representatives throughout the country in places that deal with medical issues. So what? There is a Ford dealership in the city nearby – does that mean that there is some insidious plot to force proven death machines on the public? As opposed to automobiles, Gardasil has been proven to be a safe and incredibly effective guard against cancer-causing HPV – that’s why the FDA approved it in the first place, & it has been proven more so after over 35 million doses since.

Gardasil is expensive? Sure, like many highly effective & safe drugs. That’s why Perry sought to have it mandated (with parent opt-out) like so many other childhood innoculations so that it would be covered by insurance. Where has this argument been when we ‘forced’ polio & measles vaccines? Malkin argues this point like the person who has collapsed & has been transported to the hospital for life-saving treatment, then argues about the cost of the ambulance that saved her life.

If Bachmann wants to risk the lives of her daughters over a matter of misplaced principal, that’s crazy. Unless she has their college funds plowed into a Benedictine nunnery, her daughters are going to have sex, someday, with someone, and yes, let’s hope that it is on their wedding night. They are no less at risk.

Bachmann’s performance during & after the debate was embarrassing. She’s finished.

What disclosure would you like, beyond what’s in my bio right here and I’ve written about zillions of times? That I worked for the Texas GOP? I also worked for the author of that post you’ve linked here three times. What’s your point?

Disingenuous, you say? So, lacking in candor. Where’s the lack of candor, where’s the failure to disclose. Bryan has been and continues to be completely straightforward regarding his past affiliations. Are you insisting on a disclaimer each and every time he posts anything re Rick Perry? I simply don’t get it.

Bryan’s obviously defending Perry. But I consider it a defense against what are clearly ill-informed, self-serving and reckless comments by candidates both actual and potential, as well as their groupies. And he’s defending Perry by laying out the facts, as any good reporter should and would, and by setting a frame of context and perspective on this issue, as any good analyst should and would.

I’ve read the cited post. Indeed, I’d read it yesterday. Moreover, Bryan clearly has read it and responded to it mildly. What Michelle’s actually deserves a good, long, hot fisking. Michelle lacks balance, perspective and context on this issue. And her selection of facts is highly selective, indeed tendentious. In retort to Michelle, her post is the wrong way to talk about Gardasil, not the right way.

Look, Michelle is just as biased as, if not more so than, Bryan. And she’s failing to disclose her interest: support for Sarah. To her Perry is just a dog, so she searches for any handy stick to beat him. Gardasil today, immigration tomorrow, crony capitalism the day after. The hits are gonna keep on coming until Bachmann melts down and Palin pulls the plug.

You are pathetic, Mr. Preston. I have been a long time PJM reader but you have cured me of this. I don’t even like Mrs. Bachmann but you are like a schoolboy and obviously in love with Rick Perry. Is this what passes for journalism? Like I said, pathetic.

Michelle is done like a holiday turkey at this point. Joining the “unsafe vaccine” bandwagon, even unintentionally, puts her firmly in the Ron Paul-esque territory of citing unsubstatiated populist “troofs” in place of actual facts. Anyone who seriously considered her candidacy up to this point should move on.

Get over it, true believers; this was Bachmann’s equivalent of Ed Muskie crying in NH, Gerald Ford denying that the USSR had taken over Eastern Europe or Al Gore going all primal scream.

Steve Burd, whose Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform (CAHR), was the author of Obamacare and has written it into the rules and regs of the law that if a person is not fully vaccinated upon arrival at an ER, he or she must be brought up to date on said vaccines before being treated.

It is also implied in the bill that Peek a Boo squads can show up at your door and vaccinate you and your children if they are also not up to date on Vaccines. Medical Fascism is just around the corner…

Now, perhaps some believe these types of measures are necessary to ensure we all stay healthy. I choose to believe that darker agendas are behind these laws being put into place.

Michele Bachmann should be awarded for having the courage to spank Rick Perry and bring this issue into the light of day.

Many Girls have died after getting the shot – I created a blog entry yesterday that includes seven informational VIDEOS about those deaths